Diamine Saddle brown and Diamine Damson[partly purple] have a good balance between clarity and being only moderately saturated.
This is easier to solve with paper than ink I think. Americans like to point out "black n' red" notebooks as super cheap, very fountain pen friendly paper. I don't know where those are available in the USA, but supposedly they're easily available from a number of places. Rhodia/Clairefontaine over here is like 2,5 EUR, which is really quite cheap, so I just use that. You could perhaps bulk buy that paper, without VAT you bring the price down to 2 EUR per notebook of really quality paper.
If you really want to solve this with ink, I'd start with Pelikan 4001 and Waterman inks, like others have suggested. There's a guy on ebay (scotland stationery shop or something like that) that has ink samples for real cheap with super low shipping.
Ink samples on the cheap: https://www.ebay.com/usr/stationerys...53.m2749.l2754
You might like to try Montblanc's Oyster Grey - it is a fairly light grey, tends towards being drier than wetter, and is also reasonably quick drying.
Try KWZ inks too, they tend to be drier and quick drying too.
Sailor Doyou is an almost-black brown that may behave well.
I have a brown-gray ink from Papier Plume called Pecan. With a EF nib it did good on cheap paper. I've never tried Toffee Brown, but I do have GvFC Hazelnut brown, and I find it to be very well behaved. It is highly legible too, more so than Pecan. The inks I mentioned are easy to clean. Noodler's-Walnut is another nice brown, if you want something cheaper with water resistance. Oh, I just thought about Dromgoole's-Chisholm Trail. I have had that on my wish list for quite some time. I adore that ink. It is made by Noodler's for Dromgoole's. I do know that Vanness sells it. I got a large sample of it after it came out as the new ink a year or two ago. (I forget which now) As far as gray, I like Noodler's-Lexington Gray. It is bulletproof so it will require more frequent cleaning. Never let permanent inks dry in your pen, or you will be sorry. Another gray that I love comes from Papier Plume-Oyster Grey. I found it to be well behaved, and lovely. I cannot remember about bleed through though. All I had was a small sample of it. I plan to get that one in the future. I have to finish Iroshizuku-Fuyu syogun first. I like that ink, but it is a bit light, especially with a fine nib. So I can't recommend that one.
Hi,
I know you are looking for inks that work well on cheap paper, but since someone else mentioned them:
Both Office Depot and Amazon carry Black 'n Red. Here's the link for Amazon's Black 'n Red choices: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...n+red+notebook
Miquelrius is supposed to be good, too. They can sometimes be found at Barnes & Noble, but they are at Amazon, too: https://www.amazon.com/Miquelrius-11...friendly+paper
Lady Onogaro
"Be yourself--everybody else is already taken." --Oscar Wilde
KKay (July 15th, 2018)
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